In this sample proposal, fictional names are used, and no offense should be taken by any campus entity for fictional accounts of members or their supposed actions. All quotes and letters from IBM, Physical Plant, etc. are also fictional.

Furthermore, the cover page that is required to accompany each proposal is not described here. It must be filled out and turned in with each proposal. It may be found by following this link.

Recently the World Chess Grand Champion, Gary Kasparov, was defeated by the most powerful chess computer ever built, Deep Blue. This machine, assembled and programmed by a team at IBM, was the successor to another powerful chess computer, Deep Thought. Deep Thought lost to Kasparov in 1989, but beat several Grand Champions including David Levy (New York, Dec. 11, 1989) and at one time held a performance rating >2700. It won the 1989 world computer championship in Canada. With the advent of more powerful, apparently invincible, chess computers, Deep Thought was relegated to storage at IBM. In the interest of computer science education and excellence in chess playing, we have discussed the transfer of this machine from IBM to UAF and have begun planning for that transfer. With monetary support from the Technology Board and UAF Chancellor, we can bring this technology to UAF.
 

Deep Thought is a multiple processor machine running IBM's AIX operating system. The machine has one CPU, with 4 microchannel nodes. Each microchannel employs 8 VLSI chess processors.  It is capable of calculating 100 million moves per minute and can access a growing computer library of human behavior and responses with which it finally decides upon it's single move. Once here, the machine will be available for matches with people from the UAF community. We especially look forward to a match between Deep Thought and President Komisar, who is reputed to have a killer opening gambit reminiscent of Karpov at Merano.

Deep Thought can be networked over a normal 10baseT Ethernet. The chess software is interactive and can be accessed on a simple VT100 terminal. The chess code is written in C and the source code used for the 1989 international tournaments will be made available to us (see attached letter from Dr. Fred Fricker at IBM). Users and passwords will be maintained by two students who will be appointed on a yearly basis by 1) The Chair of the Department of Computer Science and 2) The President of the Chess Club.

The Department of Computer Science looks forward to working with Deep Thought as a teaching tool for students in 400 and 600 level courses (particularly 471 and 651). As modern computers operate with multiple processors more and more, it is imperative that Computer Science Majors have experience writing parallel processing code. Deep Thought's 32 chess processors are capable of many other basic operations and effectively will allow UAF students to develop highly scalable code suitable for the massively parallel computers of today.

The computer is now stored in a Detroit, Michigan warehouse and we hope to purchase it (a quote from IBM is attached). Note that this special academic price is on the order of a current high-end desktop machine. IBM also has offered to provide installation support if we pay for shipping and handling. Special handing is required and we have a quote from IBM's usual cargo shipper. We have a new air-conditioned room in the Chapman penthouse which is perfectly suited to this use. We plan on a historical display case for the operation center and hope to have many visitors to UAF's new grand champion. IBM is providing much of the material for the display case, as described in the attached letter.

Budget
 

Item or Service to be Purchased	Cost	Justification
Computing Resources - See attached quote A
Deep Thought	$4,995
AIX License	$3,498	Operating System
C License	$1,225	For compiling code
Maintenance Contract -IBM contract    -3 year onsite service by IBM    -3 year parts warranty	$2,700	Necessary Upkeep
Other Resources
IBM's Cargo Shipper Service	$3,700	Delivery to Chapman (see attached quote B)
Extra power drop  for room 602 (by Physical Plant)	$1,200	Necessary to meet 1500Watt, 240V AC requirement of computer (quote C)
Ethernet Connection
- Physical installation	$300	See quote D from DCC
- Network Fee	$500 for one year	To be absorbed in future by CS
Other Fees
Display Case	$490	See quote E. For visitor information and promotion of IBM logo.
TOTAL	$18,608

This dual-use of a new resource will require cooperation between the students and faculty in both the Chess Club and The Department of Computer Science.  We look forward to this cooperation and hope that you accept this proposal. This is a historic opportunity for UAF to acquire a historic piece of computing technology!

2) What is the group served?
All interested chess players on campus. Students in upper level computing courses.

3) What is the size of the serviced group?
There are *** students who took 400 or 600 level Computer Science courses this year. There are currently *** members of the Chess Club, but we will be looking for many new members with the approval of this proposal.

4) Does the proposal target a group previously under-served?
In as far as supercomputing time on campus, students are underserved. In as far as monetary requirements usually expected from Chess Club (compared to other campus clubs), the Chess Club is underserved.

5) Is the technology proposed novel.
Yes. Having a large-scale parallel processing machine available for students to develop code or compete with in open chess tournaments is as novel an idea as we could dream up.

6) In what way does the proposal capitalize on existing facilities/capabilities/instructional initiatives?
Deep Thought would add greatly to the capability of the Computer Science Department to prepare students for future jobs. No new courses need be developed to incorporate the machine in classroom instruction, course sections that were previously skipped may now be included.

7) In what way is the need and/or demand for the proposed technology demonstrated?
The need for parallel processing capabilities is demonstrated by the continued migration of super-computing efforts to massively parallel processing machines. A modern Computer Science program needs some similar capability, which we are currently unable to afford. The chess club is looking for some real competition (Komisar isn't that good). The members of the Chess Club demand a new opponent!

8) What is the quantitative benefit of the technological enhancement?
UAF will benefit greatly by having a multi-processor scalable AIX machine available to student's for upper division courses. Having a well know chess computer at UAF will have measurable public relations value. Prospective students may find that UAF is a very high-tech university after all!

9) How will the installed technology be maintained, and what will it cost?
Maintenance beyond the 3 year warranty initially purchased will be assumed by the Department with possible cost sharing with Chess Club. The Chess Club has a limited budget, which may be used to help cover occasional upgrades. We are currently looking into an increase in our budget to accommodate special events and tournaments, which may eventually help with maintenance.

10) What is the expected longevity of the technology?
This technology can currently beat any chess player at UAF and will probably retain that capability.
As far as a testbed for parallel-processing code, it has a remaining lifetime of at least 5 years. Much faster processors are already available, but the hardware and software are similar to what is used today. Disk Controllers and Hard Drives are most vulnerable to failure and can be maintained as described in (9)

11) What staffing requirements and other costs are associated with the proposal?
As described in the discussion section, two students will be assigned to keep usernames and passwords. Simple system administration will be handled by one or both of these students. Further system administration will be assumed by professors who use it for course work.

12) What is the educational impact of the proposed technology?
The educational impact will be great for the Department of Computer Sciences. The use of a parallel processor, albeit a slightly aged one, in an academic setting will give student here an advantage in a particularly important area of study. Chess Club members will be able to learn much more about computers from this project. It may encourage more students to enter into study of Computer Science.

13) What, if any, user restrictions and/or fees are associated with the proposal?
Chess Club.
There are no membership fees for Chess Club. We operate with a modest budget from Student Services which covers informational flyers and meeting materials (Itza Pizza).

Department of Computer Science.
Deep Thought will not be placed in a lab which requires fees. User restrictions will be admittedly tight for a project paid for by the technology fee. Members of the Chess Club or upper-division CS courses will be the only users to have logins. However, we will invite as many people as possible to play against the computer in open games and tournaments. We hope to set up the play-by-email service that is available on other chess servers, such that anyone on campus can trade chess moves with Deep Thought via e-mail.